I suspect I found the “don’t bother” point. Since April, I’ve been putting in 6-7 hours a week. 3 on the trainer, 3 on the rowing erg. After four years off, there was a fair bit of progress in the first eight weeks, and now not really anything since June.
I trained and raced from 1980 to 2020, and most 18-54 was 15-20 hour weeks. Most of that fitness vanished with the long time off.
I’ve done sweet spot, then threshold, then VO2, 2-3 hard days a week and the rest easy. And zip. Granted, I’m 59 now. But, I’m starting to think that 3-4 hours on the trainer isn’t enough to really get anywhere, and same for the rowing.
6-7 hours of one thing each week, ok, I think I could make progress on that. But 6 hours split between two modalities. I have my doubts.
I found that as I got older. Mid 70’s now. The biggest improvements came with more volume. It’s easy for me to do vo2 and high end workouts. It produces some gains but they seem to go away quickly. For me the hardest is long tempo and TT stuff. 3 years ago I did 2 months of 250mile weeks. Mostly Z2. I got much stronger. Maybe it’s an age thing or genetics.
I was racing triathlon for 10 years averaging around 10-15 hours a week for all three sports. In 2016 I went back to get my graduate degree and for about 2 years averaged 3 hours of cycling per week.
It kept the flame on, but that was about it. I thought I would bounce right back after my studies, but it didn’t. I was fit for commuting to work, helped with stess, otherwise 3 hours for me was close to “don’t bother”.
IMHO if you are limited to 3–4 hours on the trainer, you should set yourself more humble and ultimately, more realistic goals. If you have raced for 40 years and trained 15–20 hours, then a decline in form is completely expected. In fact, slowing down the decline is the best you can hope for — simply because you once were supremely fit. If you no longer find cycling fun, you could simply replace training rides with fun rides where you, well, just ride
The second thing I noticed is that you are also rowing, but I haven’t heard anything of strength training. If I were you, I’d either stop rowing or stop cycling and spend 2–3 hours per week in the gym. That’ll have a much better return than rowing a little and cycling a little.
I did about four years of lifting 6 days a week and no aerobic. I realized this year that I need to balance things out. Current routine
Day 1: AM lift lower body PM: erg on slides for 60min
Day 2: AM lift upper body PM trainer for 60min
Day 3: same as day 1
Day 4: same as day 2
Day 5: same as day 1
Day 6: same as day 2
All the erg is zone 2 HR steady state, the trainer days are the harder stuff.
I no longer own a shell or a bike and am not planning on spending thousands to get those back
It’s pretty humbling to realize that about 9 hours a week is basically just holding steady when it’s split between strength, bike, and erg. Fiber-specific adaptations are a double-edged sword if you don’t want to do just one thing.
You didn’t mention you were lifting six days a week in your initial post! That changes everything, and it is even less surprising to see your fitness on the bike declining. Here are some thoughts that come to mind:
You are doing a lot. In addition to spending 3-4 hours on the bike and 3–4 hours on the rower, you are lifting 6 days a week. If, say, you spend one hour in the gym per session, that’s an additional 6 hours, i. e. you train 12–14 hours/week.
Put succinctly, 50 % lifting, 25 % bike and 25 % rowing. Those are your current priorities and you should expect your gains to follow these priorities. Ask yourself whether this ratio corresponds to your priorities or not. If you want to get faster on the bike/trainer, then you need to up the share you spend on the bike.
You are doing 6 double days. I don’t think that’s advisable. I have only heard of people doing up to two double days.
I noticed that you don’t give your upper/lower body a rest as you combine days on the rower with lower body work (Day 1), and likewise spend time on the trainer after upper body work. I’d try to lift less and have days where I am only on the bike.
Have you tried adapting your gym work to leave your legs fresh(er)?
Rest days become increasingly important with age. I’d experiment with adding a second rest day. I tried doing 6 days/week, but 5 workouts/week (at the same total volume and intensity!) work much better for me.
This may change percentages, but I don’t think changes the fact that your current focus is lacking and that you don’t give (parts of) your body time to rest and recover.
I have the feeling you’d see more results if you reinvested the time you currently spend in different ways, e. g. you do two proper 60-minute strength sessions as opposed to six 20-minute strength sessions. The overall time spent training would be the same, but I reckon the results would be much better. Ditto for days where you focus on the bike, just do that and space it apart with enough recovery in between.
I’d also add a second rest day, given your age that will likely give better results.
you’re gonna make progress but it’s gonna be slower. sometimes gains will be invisible on the power meter. but do your sessions feel easier? is there less fatigue for your other stuff? do you feel good in general? are you having fun on the bike?
but yeah, you’re not gonna get into your racing shape (obviously). who cares though. you’re using this as cardio / fitness booster.
i’d not worry much about numbers going up. it’s gonna go up it’ll just take longer.
btw, around here that’s low volume, but for a normal person, doing 3 hours on a bike a week is probably enough to keep them fit. let alone another 3 rowing and the lifting youre doing.
Where are you now compared to what you could do on 15-20hrs a week? I think that’ll give you a bit of a realistic view on what might be possible. Idk where that line is but I imagine you could get at least above 80% of previous numbers on 6 hours a week.
Also, is the cycling the only sport you do with a goal like this? Or are you trying to get stronger, row better, and bike better at the same time. I think the thing I see is that the plan lacks focus. It also is too consistent.
Basically it’s working out not training.
On the lifting side, what are you trying to get out of it? Especially considering you did many years of strength only focus I’m doubtful you’re able to work up to a heavy enough load to push yourself in a meaningful way in 5 different exercises in 20m. I know I would barely get done my front squats in 20 minutes, let alone 4 other compound movements.
The workout you outlined doesn’t seem bad but when you do all that in 20 minutes it’s basically an aerobic exercise, not a strength one. You need more rest time in order to hit meaningfully heavy weights.
On the aerobic side, maybe try cycling 4-5 days and only rowing 1-2 for a bit and see if you progress a bit more. Also, are you able to do some longer rides? Adding a couple 1.5-2 hours rides will probably see a meaningful difference even if it means you ride less days a week.
Overall, I think you might have to temper your expectations if you have a training history of 15-20 hours but I also think you could do better than you are with some tweaks to your plan.
The last year I trained for cycling and rowing was 2021. September ‘21 I was at 360w FTP according to intervals.icu, at 75kg. 2k time was 6:48.
I have not flogged myself through an HoP, but CP is 283w at 74kg. I haven’t tried a 2k because of a dodgy shoulder.
You’re right about weight loads – I’m not doing anything really heavy because 59-year-old knees that had 4 operations in my teens and twenties, and a shoulder that’s been dislocated twice and separated twice. Nothing heavier than about 80% of a potential 1RM. At this stage, it’s about maintenance, not increasing hypertrophy or strength.
I’d like to be able to get back to at least 4w/kg over the next year – 4 w/kg at 60 sounds like a nice number to have good fitness as I start to really age. You’re right, it’s working out more than training, but I’d like to be able to raise the level as much as I can before the sharp declines start. I also still like going hard – aerobic capacity intervals are a particular pleasure that only nutjobs like us can appreciate
I’m limited to 1 hour a day on the erg and bike sessions – time that went to those would have to be taken away from music practice, and I’m performing a few times a year, but not racing at all. Opportunity cost….
